“Firefly Sparkle,” a galaxy that existed about 600 million years after the big bang, has been imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope. The "galaxy is gleaming with star clusters," according to NASA.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Music Credit:
"Explore in Hope" by Timothy James Cornick [PRS] and Matthew Jacob Loveridge [PRS] via BBC Production Music [PRS], and Universal Production Music.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Music Credit:
"Explore in Hope" by Timothy James Cornick [PRS] and Matthew Jacob Loveridge [PRS] via BBC Production Music [PRS], and Universal Production Music.
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TechTranscript
00:00There is so much going on inside this seemingly tiny galaxy.
00:05Nicknamed the Firefly Sparkle for appearing like a swarm of lightning bugs on a warm summer night,
00:11this galaxy is gleaming with star clusters.
00:14Due to its long warped arc, researchers easily picked out 10 distinct star clusters,
00:20each of which have been examined in great detail.
00:23They appear here in shades of pink, purple, and blue.
00:26The color of each helped scientists to confirm that star formation didn't happen all at once in this galaxy,
00:32but was staggered through time.
00:34Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope,
00:37this is the very first time researchers have detected and examined a galaxy
00:42that existed around 600 million years after the Big Bang,
00:46which carries many resemblances to our own Milky Way at a similar stage of its own development.
00:52Researchers can't predict how this disorganized galaxy will take shape over billions of years,
00:57but there are two other galaxies hanging out within a tight perimeter
01:01that may influence how it builds mass as it evolves.
01:04Each time one galaxy passes another, gas condenses and cools,
01:09allowing new stars to form in clumps, adding to the galaxy's masses.
01:13Previously, scientists were unsure if it would be possible to resolve a galaxy
01:18that existed so early in the universe into so many distinct components.
01:22But Webb was able to image the galaxy well for two reasons.
01:26The first is the benefit of the cosmos.
01:29A massive foreground galaxy cluster radically enhanced and magnified the distant galaxy's appearance
01:35through a natural effect known as gravitational lensing.
01:38When combined with the telescope's specialization in high-resolution infrared light,
01:44Webb delivered unprecedented new data about the galaxy's contents.
01:48Is that only attempts?
01:50If you think you only have the gravity of a
01:58camera inside, let's look at a closeroby of a little background esquerda.
02:00hwards
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